“What is this?” Nic asked coldly, not bothering to pick up the file his man placed on the desk in front of him. Luke would fill him in with the essentials.

“You were right,” Luke told him. “Franco Delgado is going to attempt to set you up in Las Vegas when you attend the meet.”

The bodyguard stood stiffly, his hands behind his back, his gaze straight ahead. Though they’d become ‘friendly’ over the years, they were far from friends. Nic didn’t have friends, he had employees and business associates. Luke was the former. Once a person stopped being useful to Nic, they stopped. Period.

Nic nodded slowly and waved a hand lazily toward the file. “I assume this contains information on the set-up, yeah?”

Luke inclined his head.

“Explain it to me,” Nic invited, waving his second toward one of the chairs.

Luke settled his bulky, muscular frame into one of the plush guest chairs in Nic’s opulent office. He could see why Tess liked the younger man so much. He was good-looking, loyal and far easier to be around than the foreboding Italian boss. Nic searched the blackness of his heart for a spark of response for his wife’s preference toward another man. Nothing. He couldn’t bring himself to care what the two got up to, so long as it didn’t interfere with either Nic’s reputation or Luke’s work.

“Tell me,” Nic drawled, leaning back in his leather chair and reaching for a cigar, one of the few regular substances he allowed himself. “What does Franco Delgado have planned for me?”

Luke cleared his throat and shifted in an attempt to get more comfortable. Nic knew it was him and not the chair that was making his subordinate squirm. Nic was a cold man. He had little desire to be known or liked by anyone as more than their boss or executioner. Anyone that claimed him as more wanted something from him.

“According to my Vegas source, Franco plans on using a honey trap to lure you into giving up key assets,” Luke said gruffly, shifting again, placing an ankle over his knee.

Nic frowned and tapped his index finger against the file. He wore a heavy, gold masculine ring on that finger. It was large, but not large enough to cover the scrawling tattoo across his finger. It read nell’oscurita or “into the dark.” When he spoke, the impatience was clear, giving his accent a sharper edge. “And he thinks, what… that I will fall in love with his honey and willingly spill all my secrets?” He snorted and flipped the file open, his dark brown eyes glacial as they swept the words within. “He must know me better than this. I have never before succumbed to a vice; woman or otherwise. Why should I start now?”

Nic tossed the first page aside and scanned he second page, his nostrils flaring in annoyance. He was insulted at the lack of intelligence in this trap. Franco was an idiot. Of that, there could be no doubt. But this plan… it was ludicrous. How could anyone possibly think a man of Niccolo DeLuca’s standing could possibly be brought low by a woman? Utterly ridiculous.

He would burn Delgado’s castle to the ground, with him in it, slit the honey bitch’s throat and take the competition for himself. It was exactly as Franco had feared he would do. Which was why the little pussy was trying to play him. He flipped the page. His hand hovered and froze. A large photograph sat on the desk in front of him. A woman. For the first time in his life he couldn’t seem to move. And this from a simple picture.

Because he seemed unable to tear his eyes from her face, to go through the rest of the documents, he demanded, “Her name.”

“Maria Sanchez.”

Maria.

It would appear that Franco Delgado was not such an idiot after all. Somehow the raging fool knew exactly how to bring Nic to his knees. There was no question now of slitting this woman’s throat. He soaked in every part of her that he could, every nuance from the photograph and instantly craved more. Her thick, dark eyebrows winged in mischief while her brown eyes snapped angry intelligence for the camera she somehow spotted over the curve of her shoulder. Her long, wavy black hair begged for his fist as it flowed down her back. Her body… fuck her body was a curvaceous work of art.

He wanted her in his hands, beneath his body and under his control so bad he damn near shook with the need. A partial smile had him gritting his teeth. Both she and that fucker Delgado were handing him the means to put her firmly in his house. Exactly the way he wanted her. On her knees, begging for mercy. Because she was a bad girl, doing bad things, going up against a man like him. Under normal circumstances the thought wouldn’t so much as raise a brow. He would simply wave his hand and have the bitch dealt with. Now… he felt a mix of emotions; anger, curiosity, elation and lust. He intended to punish this woman, whoever she was, for however long this fascination lasted.

Then she could go the way of everyone else that crossed him. But for now… he would explore this temporary anomaly. Because nothing had peaked his cold, dead heart, nor his interest in more years than he cared to count.

It was everything Nic could do to bring his pulse back under control and make sure he wasn’t panting like a dog while he second-in-command watched from across the desk as he lusted after a woman in a photograph. He lifted dark, empty eyes and tapped the center of the picture over her chest, pinning her in place. “This woman is mine.”

Luke nodded sharply and rose from his seat. They needed no further conversation. Though Nic had never before claimed a woman beyond a night or two in an anonymous hotel room, Luke would ensure his plans for Maria Sanchez went smoothly. He knew better than to fuck with anything that Nic deemed important enough to lay claim to.

* * *

3 Months later

Missing.

His woman was motherfucking missing and not a single person could explain to him how the untouchable woman of one of the most savage mob bosses to touch down in the United States could disappear off the street without a whisper. Nic threw his phone with a savagery that didn’t bode well for anyone that knew him. Nic was everything that was calm and collected. Even when he killed, it was always with a calmness that sucked the civilization out of a room and made those left to bear witness tremble in fear.

There was a reason Niccolo DeLuca had been expelled from his own country and sent to conduct business in a place that could appreciate his level of savagery and disregard for polite rules. He was vicious and effective. He was top of the food chain.

Whoever took Maria would pay in rivers of blood and mountains of broken bones. They would pay with the screams of their children and the bodies of their kin. And if Maria was hurt in any way… The. World. Would. Burn.

His obsession with the honey had become such an all-consuming, burning emotion. He knew his fire burned his beauty too. He knew she would run from him if she could; if he looked away for a single second. He was the opposite of everything she stood for. He was oppression, subjugation, hate, fear and vice. She was intelligent and beautiful, she stood for those that were too weak to stand for themselves.

Nic hammered his fist through the bar top, shattering the frosted glass, then, pulling his hand out, fell to his knees. He reached for one of the bottles that had fallen to the floor, uncaring what is was and drank deeply. Alcohol and rage mixed while he waited for news. He made it through a quarter of the bottle when his phone finally rang. He lunged for it.

“Yes,” he barked.

“They think they found the other girl, Lucy Miller,” Luke informed him.

“I don’t give a fuck about the other girl,” Nic snarled, gripping the phone so hard it should have cracked. “Talk to me about Maria.”

“I’m coming to pick you up. If this Lucy bitch is alive she probably knows where Maria is.”

Nic grunted and hung up the phone. Luke was right. He needed to use his head and save his rage for the people who deserved it. Because if he didn’t get the right answers from Lucy Miller and the Sitnokovs he was going to burn this city to the ground with everyone in it.